Not Entirely A Lie
by Scarlet Phlame
Summary: "Before this happened, whenever I was scared in one of those mystery dungeons, I would always remind myself of the goal. Why we absolutely had to succeed, no matter what. But... I can't seem to see the goal in all of this. That's why I'm so scared. There isn't a goal... we're just trying to survive." ONESHOT. (I own nothing.) Based off of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time.


"I... I just don't understand," Torchic said as they were walking. "Dusknoir was our friend..."

"Well, I understand," Piplup said after a long moment of hesitant silence. "I understand perfectly well." she clenched her jaw and her expression changed to a mix of both anger and sadness. "Dusknoir betrayed us. He was never our friend all along." The words hurt, but Piplup knew that they were the truth.

"But... why? How could he just be so... good at pretending to be our friend? Why did he want- why did he _**need**_ our help?" Piplup shook her head.

"You know the answer to that," she said, yet the sound of her voice sounded somehow very lost and very far away.

A silent sizzling sound penetrated her thoughts, and Piplup slowly turned to see her friend crying.

"But I don't want to believe it." Piplup froze for a second, not knowing what to do. She had never been in a situation like this. Torchic was usually so brave... and bold. She'd only ever seen this side of her once, really, that tune when that nasty old Pokémon group had teased her and called her a chicken.

But that had been easier to back up, because she'd really believed they were wrong and that she was right, truly. Now... now, she didn't want to believe it either. She wanted to crawl into a hole and hide, but she knew she had to be here, now... for Torchic's sake, if not for her own.

"It's going to be all right," she finally said, once she had found her voice, at lat. "We're going to make it our of here, we'll be fine." Her voice lacked the steady conviction it had always held, though. Finally, Torchic looked up, and Piplup could see the tears glistening in her eyes.

"No, it isn't going to be okay," Torchic said almost immediately after Piplup had spoken. "We're trapped here! No one is here but us, and anyone else who is are people who want to kill us! Our friend tricked us and brought us to this world and already tried to kill us, we were just told that this is all a lie, and now I don't know what to do!" She was shouting now, but Piplup knew she didn't care. She watched Torchic suck in a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," she finally said. "I'm... I'm just upset, I mean, we could die here." she had a sad look in her eyes as she said this. "See... before this happened, whenever I was scared in one of those mystery dungeons, I would always remind myself of the goal. The objective. What we were there for, and why we absolutely had to succeed, no matter what. Because there was always a goal. Saving someone, finding something lost, escorting someone to a place... but... I can't seem to find the goal in this. Nothing... not a goal, really, just... just trying to keep ourselves alive." she paused and swallowed, and Piplup nodded. She understood now.

They had never been trapped in a situation as confusing as this before. She should've known that Torchic wouldn't have taken this in smoothly. Not like she herself had. It was a lot to take in, now that she thought about it.

She had... she'd just been trying so hard to not think about it. She'd focused on saving the both of them instead. So much, she'd forgotten completely about how her friend had felt during all this time.

This wasn't like one of missions at the Guild. It wasn't one of those simple Quests, either. It was just... survival. Living.

"It's okay. I understand," Piplup finally said. "I'm sorry... I... I know how you feel. It's just been such a hard day," she said, swallowing. "I just want to get us home," she continued hastily.

"What if we don't ever get home?" Torchic sadly asked. Piplup paused for a moment, before deciding on what she wanted to say.

"We will. I... I just know it. We have to."

Even if it wasn't true, did that make it a lie?

It wasn't entirely a lie, because she herself believed it.


End file.
